AnotherBluesStringer:borg: Wasn't Crowe a singer before he was an actor and Doesn't Jackman a Tony for best actor in musical theatre?

I liked Crowe in Les Mis. That being said, his band sucked.

Jackman is a fantastic singer. I hated his interpretation of Valjean's songs.

Pretty much this. Jackman's song & dance number at the Oscars was really freakin good. He's a talented man. This wasn't up his alley but lots of people would love to be as so-so as he was in that film. The director wanted it a bit rough around the edges and that's pretty much what he got.

Oh also SBC was great fun so the haters can stick that in their berets and revolve.

Enjoyed the movie much more than the theater version and Anne's I Dream a Dream was worth the price of the popcorn alone.

Also: Samantha Barks as Eponine was pretty damn good

WhoIsWillo:DamnYankees: It must stink to be the worst part of a movie, but Crowe was the worst part of Les Mis.

Sasha Baron Cohen.

It was a differnt interpretation of the Thenadiers, I'll grant you. Instead of the usual exuberance, it was more of a 'same shiat, different day' feel to it. The real payoff for that piece was all the slieght of hand that was being done to steel from the guests while he's singing about steeling from the guests. Also, Helena Bohnam Carter's bit in 'Master of the House', where instead of actually complaining about her husband, she's using it as a seductive lead-in to pickpocket a guest while pretending to ask for sympathy was another interesting take.

Bottom line for me: Overall enjoyed, average performance for most of the cast, outstanding performances by Anne Hathaway and Samantha Barks

I love how all of a sudden everyone on earth is an expert on "Les Mis". It hasn't been mentioned by anyone anywhere in like two decades, and all of a sudden everyone knows everything about it and "loves it".

What's really annoying is that because of that horrible musical, we can't get a movie adaptation of the actual book. That cast doing an actual movie instead of a musical would have been an awesome movie.

error 303:ucked overall, but that was probably the best possible adaptation of stage material for the big screen.

Two hours of shaky closeups of peoples faces yell

You haven't seen alot of movie musicals I feel. The Music Man, West Side story, The Rocky Horror Picture show, and The Sound of Music are all adapted musicals. If you think the film Les Mis is better than the film the Music Man you are insane.

I wont even grant that this is the best filmed version of Les Mis if that is what you mean. Either of the concert films are better.

I was a Tom Hooper appologist with the King's Speech, but Les Mis is a catastrophe.

Russel Crowe farking butchered his part and his songs. For what he did to Stars I mean my god man.

I thought Crowe was subpar, however, my musician wife told me I was expecting too much. It may or may not apply that plenty of other leading singers were not virtuosos (Rex Hamilton, Yul Brynner, Zero Mostel, RObert Preston, Carol Channing etc.) yet defined their roles.

If you want to talk about crimes to musical cinema:

This felch (and the f*cking woeful Alice In Wonderland) makes me retroactively hate everything Tim Burton has ever done. Never has a leading musical theater actor been horribly miscast (Hugh Jackman would have been the perfect 'name' actor to play it).

meanmutton:What's really annoying is that because of that horrible musical, we can't get a movie adaptation of the actual book. That cast doing an actual movie instead of a musical would have been an awesome movie.

meanmutton:What's really annoying is that because of that horrible musical, we can't get a movie adaptation of the actual book. That cast doing an actual movie instead of a musical would have been an awesome movie.

There is a 10-hour miniseries with Gerard Depardieu. In French (good for you since you like the actual book)

Jackman didn't have the voice for his role. I think he did the best that he could, but his voice was a bit too thin for those high notes.Crowe ruined the movie for me. If he was the best person for that role they should've just done open auditions because somewhere in the world there's a good looking, muscular dude who can sing like he's actually got a pair between his legs.

meanmutton:What's really annoying is that because of that horrible musical, we can't get a movie adaptation of the actual book. That cast doing an actual movie instead of a musical would have been an awesome movie.

There's been a few movies based on the book. I quite like the 1978 TV movie with Richard Jordan and Anthony Perkins, but I'd like to see the French miniseries with Depardieu (and the book is big enough to warrant a miniseries). There's also a 1998 version with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush, which I'd say has a stronger cast.

I've heard a few songs from the musical and they're as bad as what Andrew Lloyd-Webber puts out.

sure haven't:I love how all of a sudden everyone on earth is an expert on "Les Mis". It hasn't been mentioned by anyone anywhere in like two decades, and all of a sudden everyone knows everything about it and "loves it".

I don't know. Maybe because most people *cough cough women cough* have owned the original London cast recordings and also their preference of either the 10th Anniversary or 25th Anniversary concert editions and the Concert DVDs as well as having a healthy amount shuffled through their playlists for the better part of 30 years.

And Ann Hathaway was so good she almost made me forget to b*tch about the Stars performance when leaving the theater.

meanmutton:What's really annoying is that because of that horrible musical, we can't get a movie adaptation of the actual book. That cast doing an actual movie instead of a musical would have been an awesome movie.

What are you talking about? There are probably a dozen movie adaptations of that book, the most recent being a 1999 rendition starring Liam Neeson, Geoffry Rush, and Uma Thurman.

That said, I'm used to the stage music, so Hugh Jackman doesn't compare. He's a great actor, but the quality of his voice just didn't do that part justice.

Anne Hathaway did a great job, as did Eddie Redmayne. Amanda Seyfried was good as well and that cute girl that played Eponine was awesome, of course. But she was in the stage production, so that was expected.

My sister and I agreed that even though logically we knew that they were singing live to a camera that every time those guys performed it was just as good as having a polished studio rendition. Those guys got the clear second place behind Hathaway's MVP performance.

I thought Crowe was subpar, however, my musician wife told me I was expecting too much. It may or may not apply that plenty of other leading singers were not virtuosos (Rex Hamilton, Yul Brynner, Zero Mostel, RObert Preston, Carol Channing etc.) yet defined their roles.

If you want to talk about crimes to musical cinema:

[upload.wikimedia.org image 299x454]This felch (and the f*cking woeful Alice In Wonderland) makes me retroactively hate everything Tim Burton has ever done. Never has a leading musical theater actor been horribly miscast (Hugh Jackman would have been the perfect 'name' actor to play it).

You're just bitter because this is the second musical you've gone to where Helena Bonham Carter has served street meat in the poor restaurant she runs.

My sister and I agreed that even though logically we knew that they were singing live to a camera that every time those guys performed it was just as good as having a polished studio rendition. Those guys got the clear second place behind Hathaway's MVP performance.

My sister and I agreed that even though logically we knew that they were singing live to a camera that every time those guys performed it was just as good as having a polished studio rendition. Those guys got the clear second place behind Hathaway's MVP performance.

Really! #2 for me was Redmayne. He was surprisingly good. The revolutionaries were 3rd. All of them were top-notch, but Enroljas was best.

I'm a big fan of Les Mis - grew up listening to it and saw it live many times (my family is involved with the arts). Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. I liked the rawness of the singing, but it's a personal preference. I really dislike tv/film musicals where it's obvious the song is recorded in a studio. Maybe it's just poor audio engineering, but I seem to notice in a lot of these cases there's a different sound/tone between dialogue and the song that starts, and it's just jarring to my ear. But setting that aside, this person is running down stairs, jumping over obstacles, and their voice never falters? I'd rather the realism, even if it isn't perfect (I feel similarly about things like auto-tune).

That being said, I had two main problems with the movie:

1) Russell Crowe as Javert. The casting might make some sense if you think of Javert as an emotionless robocop, but Javert is as passionate as anyone else in the show. He's a Believer, he just has messed up beliefs.

2) Changes made to Eponine. In all honesty, these weren't that big, but she's my favorite character so they bothered me more. Why change all the stuff with the notes? In the original, Marius asks her to take a note to Cosette, which she does (more or less), then she goes back to be with Marius and gets shot for her trouble. This makes Marius look like a selfish ass (which he is) and Eponine as foolishly in love with him. With the changes in the film, she looks selfish and is only shot 'doing the right thing' by bringing him the letter.

I could almost understand if they needed to make changes to save time, but then Gavroche takes the letter from Marius to val Jean, so they went out of their way to change the Eponine part.

chndrcks:1) Russell Crowe as Javert. The casting might make some sense if you think of Javert as an emotionless robocop, but Javert is as passionate as anyone else in the show. He's a Believer, he just has messed up beliefs.

If you've seen Master and Commander then you know he is a passionate actor (I prefer it when he plays more interesting character pieces, though). If this were a straight up adaptation of the book he would have executed it with flawless victory. His downfall was when he was asked to sing on camera. Definitely would have been the only time I would have approved of a studio recording a head of time because he took my #2 favorite song from that show and butchered it.

chndrcks:I'm a big fan of Les Mis - grew up listening to it and saw it live many times (my family is involved with the arts). Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. I liked the rawness of the singing, but it's a personal preference. I really dislike tv/film musicals where it's obvious the song is recorded in a studio. Maybe it's just poor audio engineering, but I seem to notice in a lot of these cases there's a different sound/tone between dialogue and the song that starts, and it's just jarring to my ear. But setting that aside, this person is running down stairs, jumping over obstacles, and their voice never falters? I'd rather the realism, even if it isn't perfect (I feel similarly about things like auto-tune).

That being said, I had two main problems with the movie:

1) Russell Crowe as Javert. The casting might make some sense if you think of Javert as an emotionless robocop, but Javert is as passionate as anyone else in the show. He's a Believer, he just has messed up beliefs.

2) Changes made to Eponine. In all honesty, these weren't that big, but she's my favorite character so they bothered me more. Why change all the stuff with the notes? In the original, Marius asks her to take a note to Cosette, which she does (more or less), then she goes back to be with Marius and gets shot for her trouble. This makes Marius look like a selfish ass (which he is) and Eponine as foolishly in love with him. With the changes in the film, she looks selfish and is only shot 'doing the right thing' by bringing him the letter.

I could almost understand if they needed to make changes to save time, but then Gavroche takes the letter from Marius to val Jean, so they went out of their way to change the Eponine part.

Comment on the recording.. I saw a clip on YT that they used wireless radio microphones on the actors so that's "live" singing you're hearing. If the singers aren't faltering during those scenes, it's probably because they are well-rehearsed and/or they are that good.

AeAe:Comment on the recording.. I saw a clip on YT that they used wireless radio microphones on the actors so that's "live" singing you're hearing. If the singers aren't faltering during those scenes, it's probably because they are well-rehearsed and/or they are that good.

They were commenting that they typically don't like TV/Movie musicals because of the perfect performances. The comment was about how much they liked the direction because of that musical choice right off.

WTF, Anne Hathaway's performance of I Dreamed A Dream makes Morissey look like the happiest man who ever lived. I was moved strongly when I heard it on her NPR interview a few weeks ago; I was ready to open up my veins after seeing the whole thing yesterday. How the fark is that not a successful performance?

rocinante721:This felch (and the f*cking woeful Alice In Wonderland) makes me retroactively hate everything Tim Burton has ever done. Never has a leading musical theater actor been horribly miscast (Hugh Jackman would have been the perfect 'name' actor to play it).

You know, I know it's unpopular to actually like stuff on Fark but I actually liked that movie adaptation. The only casting I hated was Helena Bonheim Carter because, let's face it, Sondheim is hard and complex and you need a true vet to carry it off. But Johnny Depp brought a more vulnerable performance to the role and I liked it. I was prepared, and I mean really prepared, to hate his performance. Instead I walked away really liking him. However this movie made me very weary when I heard that HBC was cast in Les Mis. Glad she actually brought it in this movie.